Aand The Show Goes On
by Go Chanel
Summary: After the Aldrich Killian mess, something's bothering Pepper, and she's afraid to speak to tony about the problem at had, but when he finds out, will he be the person Pepper hopes he can be? Pepperony included! Will be here later. Please feel free to review!


Virginia 'Pepper' Potts has been working at Stark industries for 12 years now. Her and tony have been in a stable-ish relationship for two years now. She had been a little iffy about their relationship for a few months, but that iffy feeling evaporated when the whole Aldrich Killian ordeal had taken place. He'd been through a lot to save her that day, and in the end they'd lived again. He'd shown her he loved her, and even though that Christmas could've been better, they'd been satisfied in the end, and rewarded themselves by renting out a whole hotel -that had jus so happened to have been evacuated- so they could at least have some privacy while they relaxed. They had spent sometime alone in the jacuzzi. They'd gotten engaged, without actually having an engagement ring, and went to sleep fully fulfilled that night.

It just so happened that, that night, they hadn't used any protection, nor did they three weeks after the day tony got surgery to get the Arc reactor removed a month ago. She hadn't really cared at first, but when she realized her mistake, she just brushed it off by assuring herself that she'd take the morning after pill. That was almost four weeks ago, sometime around last MONTH. And now that she's realized that she still hasn't had her period, and that the months about to end, it's a huge problem.

She hadn't wanted to tell Tony because she didn't want to add anymore stress on him. He'd been having nightmares about the whole Aldrich Killian ordeal, and sometimes -very rarely though- they'd be about New York, and she's have to soothe him back to sleep every time, but afterwards she hadn't been able to go back to sleep herself.

Every night she'd think. When she couldn't get back to sleep, she sit up until the wee hours of the morning before the sun rose, and she'd think. She'd think about how she'd tell him if she was indeed pregnant, she'd think about what she could do to get his night terrors to go away, -maybe see a psychiatrist- she'd think about what would've happened if she'd died when she fell, -would Aldrich have killed Tony?- she'd think about what she would've been like if tony hadn't been able to remove extremis. She'd think about a lot because once she was up, her mind went running wild.

Sometimes, she sat in her office pretending to work in order to avoid tony, other times when he'd wonder into the room she'd just so happened to be in, she'd avoided eye contact and when he'd ask if something was up, she would deflect his questions by changing the subject at hand.

She has been sitting in her office since 5am. She'd wanted an early start at work because of her lack of focus lately, so she had woken up before tony, and got dressed early, -she knew he'd wonder where she'd run off to when he gotten up, so she'd also left a message with Jarvis-. It is now 4pm in the afternoon she realizes just now as she glances at the clock on the edge of her desk. 'Twelve hours' she thinks. 'I haven't see tony in twelve hours, that's half a day.' With this fact in mind, she knows that eventually tony is gonna come barging in her office door demanding that she tells him what's wrong, and here he comes.

Although she literally hears nothing. She always feels like she can hear his ego. When he come into a building or room, it lights up. And she realizes that she's a professional stark hunter because she smelled him a mile away and... 'Speak of the devil' she thinks because he's now in her office ego, swagger, pin-stripped suit, and all with happy in tow with brown paper bags. By the smell of it, she can tell its Chinese.

"Hey." She gives him a small smile

"Hey."

"I thought you'd be hungry..." She wonders if he's been keeping track of how long she's been gone. "You know. And I'm pretty sure you haven eaten anything in about... Twelve hours." He lifts an eyebrow.

'Yep' she thinks. 'He has'." Nope. Starving."

Tony puts down the bag that he's holding, and happy does the same after she clears a spot off of her desk.

"What'd you get."

"2 orders of Orange chicken, 2 cartons of shrimp lo mien noodles, 2 cartons of beef lo mien noodles, 2 orders of wonton soups, 2 orders of changs chicken noodle soup, spring rolls, extra egg rolls because I know how much you like them, and off course extra fortune cookies."

"Why'd you get so much?" She asks. Although she thinks it's a bit to much, she has to say that she does love egg rolls, and she's glad he got extra because her stomach is rumbling, and honestly, she hasn't eaten in twelve hours, but she won't admit that to herself because she hates it when he's right. She takes a Huge bite of an egg roll and chews slowly, savoring the tangy flavor while she opens a carton of beef lo mien noodles.

"Because if your as hungry as I am, than there's no such thing as too much food." She lets out a little giggle at that.

"Anyway, enough about me." He takes a large bite of shrimp, noodles and broccoli, and chews then swallows. "Tell me what's wrong pepper." He gives her an accessing look.

"If I tell you, you'd probably freak out." She gives him a sheepish grin.

He reaches across the desk and grabs her hand. "Pepper, after everything we've been through, nothing could get to me, I love you, and no matter what, is going to stay that way, so you can tell me anything."

She's shocked. She's shocked because just when she didn't think tony could change for the better any more so than he already had, he'd changed again. 'Well that's tony stark for you.' She thinks. 'Always proving people wrong.' She mentally shakes her head. And she's realized that her mouth is hanging wide open, and she has noodle still hanging out. She quickly closes her mouth and puts a hand over it before reaching for a napkin and continuing chewing.

"Uhm. Wow." She says after she swallows. "That was, nice." Tony chuckles a little.

"Well." She starts. She's trying to avoid contact by staring down at the desk in front of her. "I-I." She starts, but then makes the mistake of glancing up at him. He's giving her a quizzical look. It has a mixture of love and confusion, and it's so intense that she can't hold eye contact and looks away quickly. She settles for looking at the photo shelf she has on her wall to the left, and braces herself for a reaction for what she's about to tell him. She has to admit that she's a little scared, so her next words are quick, but slow enough for him to process them. "I think I might be pregnant."

She doesn't look at him, but she listens for a reaction. When she doesn't hear anything, she assumes that he's pissed, and thinks, 'Damn, I've lost my appetite. Poor egg rolls.' After feeling kinda sorry for herself for the past few minuets of quiet, she risks glancing at him once more, and what she sees nearly shocks her half to death.

Tony Stark is sitting across from her, with a huge smile lighting up across his face. "Are you positive." He almost sounds like a five year old boy who's parents told him he could have dessert before dinners with extra chocolate sauce. The way he looks right now brightens up her entire mood.

"No-Not entirely."

"Well we need to see! Right away. Schedule a doctors appointment pronto."

"It'd be easier if I just went to to a drug store and bought a pregnancy test.-"

" No! Those aren't always accurate." Instead of arguing, she just smiles and nods her okay. She's to happy that Tony's taking it this way to even disagree with him. "This is kind of... perfect timing." He slowly reaches into his pocket and all the while maintaining eye contact with her, he pulls out a small fuzzy box, and he sees peppers collective gasp. "This is the uh, enga- ehem-engagement ring."

The fact that he's stuttering, and flushing is ridiculously cute to pepper, but she smiles and reaches over to grab the small box.

She examines the box. It's small and fuzzy and a light robin egg blue with a pristine white bow hugging four sides. No doubt from Tiffany's, but as unceremoniously as his proposal just was, she still wants to savor the moment.

She slowly pulls the bow, as if to not break it, and opens the box. She gasps when she sees the actual ring. "Uhm, tony? You don't think its a little to big?"

"No." Is Tony's automatic answer. He's looking at her as if to tell her that she's the most beautiful thing he's ever saw, and while she's looking at him, she knows he's telling her that she deserves nothing but the best. "I know it may be a little to... Extravagant.. For your tastes, but pepper please just let me do this for you. When ever we have the actually wedding, I'll let you have whatever you want, I'll let you do what ever you think should be done, but just please, let me have this."

She's never actually heard him plea, let alone for her. So she nods, not trusting her voice, then leans over the desk and kisses him hard. When they break apart she whispers to him that she absolutely loves him.

"I love you. Pepper, and if you don't mind, I'm still kinda hungry." He makes her laugh, and she snorts a little, not because it was funny, but because she's so happy that she thinks that it's honestly a possibility that she's floating on cloud nine right now.

He reaches over and snags one of her egg rolls, and just seeing him chomp down on it makes her want one too.

She's really happy that she got her appetite back, she would've been sad if the egg rolls had went to waste.


End file.
